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Rosa Rows to Worlds!

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The Short and Sweet of It

Dreams do come true! I have officially made the US National Team and I will be racing at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria! Racing takes place August 25 - September 1. My event is the lightweight women’s 4x (quad) and my teammates and I are incredibly excited for the opportunity to show the world that the USA lightweight women are a force to be reckoned with!

Believe it or not, our trip to the World Championships in Austria is a self-funded one. As many of you may know by now, the amateur athlete life is quite the conundrum. To be successful, you must wholeheartedly commit to full time training, which leaves very little time to make money, even enough money to buy the food you need to properly fuel your training. When all of your hard work and dedication finally pays off (ie making the National Team), you then have to fund your own way to international competition. 

This is where you come in! I have created this page to fundraise for my portion of the costs. My goal amount includes the following for my 2 week stay in Austria (the first week we acclimate and practice, the 2nd week is racing):

-Flights to & from Austria 
-Accommodations - Hotel in Linz with the rest of the US contingent!  
-Ground transportation 
-Food 
-Equipment rental - boat and oars 
-¼ of coach fee - covers our coach’s Austria travel (P.S. our coach has  dedicated his time and efforts to us for free through this entire process)  

Any amount donated is a tremendous help and very, very much appreciated! You will forever be a part of Team Rowsa :)  

*If you are interested in corporate sponsorship opportunities, please let me know!

Gratitude

THANK YOU to all of my family, friends and supporters who have helped and guided me along the way. You keep me focused when the path gets blurry and you believed in me even when I didn’t. You are absolutely as much a part of this success as I am! 


The “Before” Story

This chapter starts 14 years ago when I started rowing as a freshmen in high school but in an effort to save some of your valuable time I will condense the better part of it to: 

I rowed for 4 years in high school, for both James I. O’Neill HS and East Arm Rowing Club. I then rowed for 4 years as a Division I athlete at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). After college, I raced with Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia as part of their summer high performance program before moving to Sarasota, Florida to coach and continue my pursuit of making the National Team.

Over the past 5 years I have pushed “normal adulthood” aside and dedicated myself to training full time. While I have seen tremendous improvements and progress along the way, I had yet to secure a spot on the National Team, until now! 

A major contributing factor to this achievement is the system of selection created and run this year by our coach, Casey Galvanek. Casey offered his and Sarasota Crew’s resources to the lightweight women of the US in an effort to gather as many athletes in a single location as possible. This type of environment undoubtedly makes each individual faster and more competitive while also producing the fastest team boats possible. The training and selection processes over the past 4 months were grueling enough to make each of us, at different times, question our ability to persevere. The original group of 12 fiercely competitive women were eventually selected down to 4, who then had to race at Trials to officially earn their spot on the 2019 US Team.  

On Wednesday, July 10th, my 3 awesome boatmates and I won our Trials event in the Lightweight Women’s 4x, earning our spot on the 2019 National Team and the right to represent the US on the international stage! 


So What’s Next?

The short term answer: 5 weeks of laser focused training, travel to Austria, kicking butt at the World Championships!

The long term answer: Continue full time training with the goal of making the 2020 National Team for….oh yeah, TOKYO 2020! 



Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I hope you check back for updates as they come!



Yours truly,


Rosa
USA National Team Rower :)
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  • Anonymous
    • $250 
    • 5 yrs
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Rosa Kemp
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Osprey, FL

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